Aaaarrrgghhhhhh! Let me speak to a person!!

Can I just say “AAARRGGHHHHHHHHH” before I begin? I phoned Verizon today to check whether our fax was still illegible, and actually got put through to a person who could verify our account!! Then to a person who could set up the phone/cable and internet package for us. So I set up the phone and the broadband and was starting on the cable when I hit a snag. Verizon are satellite “cable” not actual cable…and the house is wired for actual cable. Not much good to me then! Still at least we had phone/broadband set up… I then managed to find the cable company number…and they do a bundle package as well. So I phoned back Verizon to check some details on the broadband to compare prices and discovered that they couldn’t actually set up my account because my landlady hadn’t actually fully disconnected her line. So, I then phoned back Comcast to get bundle information and pricing, then phoned back Verizon to cancel… Each phone call to Verizon took about 20 minutes and mostly consisted of navigating the voice activated menu...
“are you calling about phone number 703……”
“No”
“Please state the phone number you are calling about”
“703…………”
“In order for us to direct your call, please state the 10 digit phone number you are calling about”
{silent scream}
“703 ………….”
“Do you want Account Information or information on new services”
“neither”
“Okay….Do you want information on cable or something else”
“Something else”
“Give a short two or three word description of how we can assist you. For example, if you want to ask about our fibre optic broadband system, say fibre optic broadband”
“Customer Service”
“You have asked for Cable packages”
“No!!!! Customer Service. Customer Service”

Eventually the system would take pity on me and put me on hold for 5 minutes then eventually connect me to a real live person!...who had about as much difficulty understanding me!!! I’ve mastered asking for “budder, wadder and tomaytoes” but I need to work on how to pronounce South Lee Street!!!!

So, basically after waiting a week for Verizon to verify us, we’re not using them and will set up a bundle with Comcast – who let you speak to a human straight away and don’t torture you with this automated system rubbish!! This has taken most of today, and I still need to phone Comcast to sort out what cable packages we want…

(Tuesday 10th July)